As a free-admission outdoor sculpture park with both permanent and visiting installations, it is a unique institution in the United States.[3] The idea of green space for large, monumental sculpture in Seattle, was first discussed between Virginia and Bagley Wright, Mary and Jon Shirley (former president of Microsoft and Chairman of the Seattle Art Museum Board of Directors), and Seattle Art Museum director (and wife of William Gates Sr.) Mimi Gardner Gates.[4] The idea grew further during a discussion in 1996 between and Martha Wyckoff while stranded on a fly fishing trip in Mongolia due to a helicopter crash.[5][6] Wyckoff, being a trustee of the Trust for Public Land, soon after began an effort to identify possible locations for the park.[6]

A $30 million gift from Mary and Jon Shirley established them as foundational donors.[6] As part of constructing the sculpture park, 5.7 million dollars were spent transforming 1,000 feet (300 m) of the seawall and underwater shoreline inside Myrtle Edwards park. A three level underwater slope was built with 50,000 tonnes of riprap. The first level of the slope is large rocks to break up waves. The second is a flat "bench" level to recreate an intertidal zone. The lower level is covered with smaller rocks designed to attract sealife and large kelp. It is hoped that this recreated strand will help revitalise juvenile salmon from the Duwamish River and serve as a test for future efforts.[7]

Maintenance of the sculptures has been an ongoing issue. The environment near a large salt water body has been corrosive to pieces like Bunyon's Chess, made primarily of exposed wood and metal. Tall painted pieces such as Eagle need to be watched for damage from birds and their waste. Maintenance of these large structures is expensive, requiring scaffolding or boom lifts. The paint on Eagle is also damaged by grass clippings near the base of its installation, requiring the gardeners to use scissors instead of a lawn mower near the sculpture.[8]

Prior to and during the park’s opening in 2007, the project received positive reviews from many regional and national press sources,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] and the Olympic Sculpture Park has now become an icon for Seattle. Frommer’s guide calls it “the best thing to happen to Seattle in years.”[46]

Before the construction of the Olympic Sculpture Park began, there was substantial criticism in the community that the new park would result in the complete shutdown of the Waterfront Streetcar, a fixture of the Seattle waterfront since 1982, because of the park's needed demolition of the streetcar's maintenance and storage facility. The storage and maintenance building was located on a portion of the park's proposed site, and the new park was not designed to either incorporate the existing building or construct a replacement facility. As a result, the streetcar "carbarn" was demolished and the line shut down in November 2005, despite an offer by the staff of the Waterfront Streetcar to modify the carbarn into a sculpture to fit in to the park, the route being named, by National Geographic Society, as one of the 10 Great Streetcar routes,[47] and its great popularity with tourists and locals. A new facility has been proposed to be built in Pioneer Square to allow the route to reopen in the future. As of 2013, King County Metro, and City of Seattle fail to implement a plan for said new carbarn.

As soon as the park opened it was also criticized by the public for two policies that seemed to conflict with the easy public accessibility of an open-air museum: "Don't Touch" and "Limited Photography". The park hired security officers to enforce these rules.

On its weekend opening, both major local papers, the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran articles about the museum's "Don't Touch" policy.[48][49] The policy was instituted by Chief Conservator Nicholas Dorman to protect the pieces from damage, not just from scratching and vandalism, but long-term changes caused by oils left by human contact. The largest and one of the most accessible pieces, Wake by Richard Serra, has a delicate patina of rust that could be protected by a coating but has not because it conflicts with the museum's ideal to present and preserve the piece in its purest form.

One of the park's prominent pieces, Typewriter Eraser, Scale X by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, is on three-year loan from its owner, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.[50] Unlike the other sculptures in the park, there was initially a posted sign indicating that the public does not have permission to photograph this sculpture,[51] in spite of its current position alongside Elliott Avenue, a major street running through the park. After some criticism, the prohibition was lifted, with a Seattle Art Museum spokesperson claiming it was "a misinterpretation of the loan agreement".[52] The text prohibiting photography was subsequently covered up with masking tape.

Much of the sculpture comes from local collections or were specifically commissioned for the park. Some of the donated pieces have been referred to as the "equivalent of an unwanted birthday present left on the curb for charity." By commissioning sculptures, the park has been criticized for placing art that does not have "staying power" by artists who have not proven their worth. The piece Stinger, ostensibly by artist Tony Smith, has caused debate among artists and critics because it was created twenty years after his death.[53] In addition, a few undisclosed owners of a select sculptures have stated that they, in fact, had no desire to keep their sculptures, and use the park simply as a tax write-off.